19 Cozy Nooks That Radiate Charm and Comfort
Devoción, an award-winning, third-wave Colombian coffee roaster, has recently debuted a new 1,700-square-foot outpost in downtown Brooklyn. Designed by LOT Office for Architecture Design, the cafe is set on the ground floor of a luxury high-rise, and features a breathtaking bright and airy, greenery-filled interior to match the company's Columbian spirit. The space offers several nooks for quiet moments and seclusion.
In Paris, a painter's granddaughter turns a 484-square-foot studio into a minimalist family home that abounds with smart storage and integrated furniture. A reading nook in front of the "cabin" workspace is at the top of the stairs.
Quietly tucked away on a lush, tree-lined street in the Gardens of Forest Hills, this landmarked family home underwent a gut renovation. The updates address the challenges of creating a modern home within a 1930s Tudor-style stately home–respecting the details and character of the home while balancing the needs of a young family of four. A refined palette of light, compatible materials, and fixtures were provided throughout. The children’s bedrooms have custom cabinetry and cozy reading nooks.
In the living room, the team raised the firebox, cladded the hearth in a tactile plaster finish, and installed a floating limestone bench that wraps the column. On the left (unseen) is integrated firewood storage, and a cozy reading nook sits on the right. "The bench was designed to be used as a social space/lounge, and is well-used," says Clay Coffey, founder of Isaac-Rae. The wood beams and red brick were scraped and stripped many times to remove the silver paint and reclaim a natural state.
Sofia von Ellrichshausen and Mauricio Pezo’s reinforced concrete home in Chile stacks rooms for working in a vertical column atop horizontally-oriented spaces for living. A bedroom occupies the top of each tower; a ladder leads to a sleeping nook and an east-facing window seat in the Sunrise suite.
Responding to its beachside meadow setting, a family retreat is crafted with lasting materials and designed to capture and celebrate the ever-changing views, light, and breezes. Five porches, covered and open, and an irregular floor plan with plenty of nooks and alcoves to nestle into allow the family and their guests to find a relaxing spot in the sun or shade at any time of day.
Voted New Zealand's Best Small Home in 2016, this petite retreat has been cleverly designed to sleep up to eight guests. The architect was inspired from the property owner's occupation—he is a sailor and superyacht skipper—when she designed the cabin. For instance, the table that fits into a nook on the side of the kitchen references the area on the yachts where the captain works. Above the table is a sleeping platform accessed by a long ladder.
Finding inspiration in the work of Tadao Ando, a Houston couple design the concrete house of their dreams. Awaiting the birth of the couple’s son, homeowner Vivi relaxes in a built-in reading nook in the library.
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House Grace is a full renovation and addition that creates a connected, light-filled home for a young family. The window nook on an upper level overlooks the neighborhood trees and street.
Sam Shah and Anne Suttles asked architect Kevin Alter to renovate their 1920s bungalow in Austin, Texas, and add an addition, which contains a living area downstairs and an office upstairs. They tucked an office nook under the stairs; the Eames chair is a hand-me-down from Shah’s father.
One of the coziest nooks in the house is in the living room, a window seat where Cohen sits and reads. Because the large glass window in the living room is fixed, the smaller one opens to allow cross breezes and ventilation.
![Stealth storage and a color palette borrowed from nature lets this Australian houseboat live larger than its 495 square feet. While researching houseboat design, Kate Harry (of the Adelaide-based interiors firm Fabrikate) and her team "found Australian houseboats [to be] notoriously dark and heavy spaces." Instead, they turned to the houseboat's setting on the Murray River for inspiration, combining a color palette of mint green, white, caramel, and driftwood.](https://images2.dwell.com/photos/6272473203005894656/6364300253347454976/original.jpg?auto=format&q=35&w=160)
Stealth storage and a color palette borrowed from nature lets this Australian houseboat live larger than its 495 square feet. While researching houseboat design, Kate Harry (of the Adelaide-based interiors firm Fabrikate) and her team "found Australian houseboats [to be] notoriously dark and heavy spaces." Instead, they turned to the houseboat's setting on the Murray River for inspiration, combining a color palette of mint green, white, caramel, and driftwood.
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In homeowner Bill Mathesius’s office on the third floor, an antique armchair, a rug, and a bookshelf made from salvaged wood create a cozy, sun-filled reading nook.
A floor-to-ceiling sliding door offers direct access to the patio and yard. A yellow custom-built reading nook packs a playful punch of bold color, and certainly brightens up the gray days that the Pacific Northwest is known for.
A second spruce alcove frames a nook with wool-covered custom seating, and features Nendo’s Innerblow coffee tables with blown molten-glass tops; the geometric pillows were designed by Pierre Yovanovitch.
"The Delaware house is sophisticatedly simple, with features that tie into the old downtown neighborhood that it is located in. The interior is bright and open, with a sloped glass roof that fills the home with natural light throughout the day and views of the stars at night," says the architect.
An energy-efficient home mines inspiration from a gold rush town in the California foothills. This cozy reading nook fits underneath the stairs, saving floor space in the 1,690-square-foot home.
A previously empty space became a nature-infused breakfast nook with a built-in bench seat of wood slats painted white. Arthur Umanoff chairs join a live-edge wood slab table. The lines of the Dansk salt and pepper shaker are mirrored in the vintage lamp, with a cardboard shade found at the Long Beach flea market.
An awkward corner carved out of the living area offered the perfect location to try a hand at cast-in-place concrete. The nook is now a media center, with shelves for cookbooks and a ventilated cabinet for the computer. In the hallway bathroom, hex tiles, marble, and a fuchsia wall came together to create a space worthy of a boutique hotel. Throughout the apartment, small personal touches, like a neatly arranged shelf of curios and a hand-stenciled wall pattern, show the couple’s dedication to making the most of their small home.
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